Dataset Information

The increasing number of clinical items addressed during the time of adult primary care visits.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Primary care physicians report that there is insufficient time to meet patients' needs during clinical visits, but visit time has increased over the past decade.

Objective

To determine whether the number of clinical items addressed during the primary care visit has increased, and if so, whether this has been associated with changes in visit length and the pace of clinical work.

Design

Analysis of non-hospital-based adult primary care visits from 1997 to 2005, as reported in the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey.

Participants

A total of 46,431 adult primary care visits.

Measurements

We assessed changes over time for the total number of clinical items addressed per visit (including diagnoses, medications, tests ordered, and counseling), visit duration, and average available time per clinical item. In adjusted analyses we controlled for patient and physician characteristics.

Results

The number of clinical items addressed per visit increased from 5.4 to 7.1 from 1997 to 2005 (p < 0.001). Visit duration concurrently increased from 18.0 to 20.9 min (p < 0.001). The increase in the number of clinical items outpaced the increase in duration, resulting in a decrease in time per clinical item from 4.4 to 3.8 (p = 0.04). These changes occurred across patient age and payer status and were confirmed in adjusted analyses.

Conclusions

The volume of work associated with primary care visits has increased to a greater extent than has visit duration, resulting in less available time to address individual items. These findings have important implications for reimbursing physician time and improving the quality of care.

SUBMITTER: Abbo ED

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2596516 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

The increasing number of clinical items addressed during the time of adult primary care visits.

Abbo Elmer D ED Zhang Qi Q Zelder Martin M Huang Elbert S ES

Journal of general internal medicine 20081002 12

<h4>Background</h4>Primary care physicians report that there is insufficient time to meet patients' needs during clinical visits, but visit time has increased over the past decade.<h4>Objective</h4>To determine whether the number of clinical items addressed during the primary care visit has increased, and if so, whether this has been associated with changes in visit length and the pace of clinical work.<h4>Design</h4>Analysis of non-hospital-based adult primary care visits from 1997 to 2005, as ...[more]

PMID: 18830762

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Project description:BackgroundReceiving quality antenatal care (ANC) from skilled providers is essential to ensure the critical health circumstances of a pregnant woman and her child. Thus, this study attempted to assess which risk factors are significantly associated with the timing of antenatal care and the number of items of antenatal care content received from skilled providers in recent pregnancies among mothers in Ethiopia.MethodsThe data was extracted from the Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey 2016. A total of 6645 mothers were included in the analysis. Multilevel mixed-effects logistic regression analysis and multilevel mixed Negative binomial models were fitted to find the factors associated with the timing and items of the content of ANC services. The 95% Confidence Interval of Odds Ratio/Incidence Rate Ratio, excluding one, was reported as significant.ResultsAbout 20% of the mothers initiated ANC within the first trimester, and only 53% received at least four items of antenatal care content. Being rural residents (IRR = 0.82; 95%CI: 0.75-0.90), wanting no more children (IRR = 0.87; 95%CI: 0.79-0.96), and the husband being the sole decision maker of health care (IRR = 0.88; 95%CI: 0.81-0.96), were associated with reduced items of ANC content received. Further, birth order of six or more (IRR = 0.74; 95%CI: 0.56-0.96), rural residence (IRR = 0.0.41; 95%CI: 0.34-0.51), and wanting no more children (IRR = 0.61; 95%CI: 0.48-0.77) were associated with delayed antenatal care utilization.ConclusionsRural residences, the poorest household wealth status, no education level of mothers or partners, unexposed to mass media, unwanted pregnancy, mothers without decision-making power, and considerable distance to the nearest health facility have a significant impact on delaying the timing of ANC visits and reducing the number of items of ANC received in Ethiopia. Mothers should start an antenatal care visit early to ensure that a mother receives all of the necessary components of ANC treatment during her pregnancy.

Project description:Most of the research on primary care workload has focused on the number of visits or the average duration of visits to a primary care physician (PCP) and their effect on the quality of medical care. However, the accumulated annual visit duration has yet to be examined. This measure could also have implications for the allocation of resources among health plans and across regions. In this study we aimed to define and characterize the concept of "Accumulated Annual Duration of Time" (AADT) spent with a PCP. METHOD: A cross-sectional study based on a national random sample of 77,247 adults aged 20 and over. The study's variables included annual number of visits and AADT with a PCP, demographic characteristics and chronic diseases. The time period was the entire year of 2012.For patients older than 20 years, the average annual number of visits to a PCP was 8.8 ± 9.1, and the median 6 ± 10 IQR (Interquartile Range). The mean AADT was 65.8 ± 75.7 min, and the median AADT was 43 ± 75 IQR minutes. The main characteristics of patients with a higher annual number of visits and a higher AADT with a PCP were: female, older in age, a higher Charlson index and a low socio-economic status. Chronic diseases were also found to increase the number of annual visits to a PCP as well as the AADT, patients with chronic heart failure had highest AADT in comparison to others (23.1 ± 15.5 vs. 8.6 ± 8.9 visits; and 165.3 ± 128.8 vs. 64.5 ± 74 min). It was also found that the relationship between AADT and age was very similar to the relationship between visits and age.While facing the ongoing increase in a PCP's work load and shortening of visit length, the concept of AADT provides a new measure to compare between different healthcare systems that allocate different time frames for a single primary care visit. For Israel, the analysis of the AADT data provides support for continued use of the number of visits in the capitation formula, as a reliable and readily-accessible indicator of primary care usage.

Project description:OBJECTIVES:Policymakers have increasingly focused on emergency department (ED) utilization for primary care-treatable conditions as a potentially avoidable source of rising health care costs. The objective was to determine the association of health insurance type and arrival time, as indicators of limited availability of primary care, with primary care-treatable classification of ED visits. METHODS:This was a retrospective analysis of a nationally representative sample of 241,167 ED visits from the 1997 to 2009 National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Surveys (NHAMCS). Probabilities of ED visits being primary care-treatable were categorized based on the primary International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) code. The association of health insurance type and arrival time was determined with the average probability of the primary diagnosis being primary care-treatable using multivariable linear regression. RESULTS:Compared to privately insured visits, Medicaid visits had a 1.7% (95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.2% to 2.2%) and uninsured visits a 2.4% (95% CI = 1.9% to 3.0%) higher probability of primary care-treatable classification, while Medicare visits had a 1.4% (95% CI = 0.7% to 2.0%) lower probability during the overall study period. Compared to business hours, weekend visits had a 1.5% (95% CI = 1.0% to 2.0%) higher probability of being primary care-treatable during the overall study period. From 1997 to 2009, the overall adjusted probability of ED visits being primary care-treatable increased by 0.19% (95% CI = 0.10 to 0.28) per year. This probability increased at a rate of 0.52% per year for Medicare visits (95% CI = 0.38% to 0.65%), more than double that of Medicaid visits (0.25% per year, 95% CI = 0.13% to 0.37%). By contrast, there was no significant change from 1997 to 2009 in the average probability of ED visits being primary care-treatable by privately insured (0.05% per year, 95% CI = -0.07 to 0.16) or uninsured (0.00% per year, 95% CI = -0.12 to 0.13) individuals. CONCLUSIONS:These findings add to prior work that implicates insurance type and arrival time in the variation of primary care-treatable ED visits. Although primary care-treatable classification of ED visits was most associated with uninsured or Medicaid visits, this classification increased most rapidly among Medicare visits during the study period.

Project description:BackgroundThe relationship between worklife factors, clinician outcomes, and time pressure during office visits is unclear.ObjectiveTo quantify associations between time pressure, workplace characteristics ,and clinician outcomes.DesignProspective analysis of data from the Healthy Work Place randomized trial.Participants168 physicians and advanced practice clinicians in 34 primary care practices in Upper Midwest and East Coast.Main measures and methodsTime pressure was present when clinicians needed more time than allotted to provide quality care. Other metrics included work control, work pace (calm to chaotic), organizational culture and clinician satisfaction, stress, burnout, and intent to leave the practice. Hierarchical analysis assessed relationships between time pressure, organizational characteristics, and clinician outcomes. Adjusted differences between clinicians with and without time pressure were expressed as effect sizes (ESs).Key resultsSixty-seven percent of clinicians needed more time for new patients and 53% needed additional time for follow-up appointments. Time pressure in new patient visits was more prevalent in general internists than in family physicians (74% vs 55%, p?<?0.05), women versus men (78% vs 55%, p?<?0.01), and clinicians with larger numbers of complex psychosocial (81% vs 59%, p?<?0.01) and Limited English Proficiency patients (95% vs 57%, p?<?0.001). Time pressure in new patient visits was associated with lack of control, clinician stress, and intent to leave (ESs small to moderate, p?<?0.05). Time pressure in follow-up visits was associated with chaotic workplaces and burnout (small to moderate ESs, p's?<?0.05). Time pressure improved over time in workplaces with values alignment and an emphasis on quality.ConclusionsTime pressure, more common in women and general internists, was related to chaos, control and culture, and stress, burnout, and intent to leave. Future studies should evaluate these findings in larger and more geographically diverse samples.

Dataset Information

The increasing number of clinical items addressed during the time of adult primary care visits.

Background

Objective

Design

Participants

Measurements

Results

Conclusions

Publications

The increasing number of clinical items addressed during the time of adult primary care visits.

Similar Datasets

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